When is Match.com Free and How Much Can It Cost?

Last Updated: April 12, 2017 - 2:49 EDT

There aren't many ways to sugar-coat it: Match is a dating service that's a little on the pricey side, but it may be worth it if you find that special someone. So in this tutorial, we're going to go over how to make sure that you get your money's worth out of it.

Is Match.com free?

Signing up for Match.com is free, but most of its more useful features will be locked unless you have a paid subscription. In order to get the most out of the service, and to access all of the great features of the site, we would recommend choosing one of the paid membership options. We’ll go over each plan below.

As you can see in the chart above, for example, a free membership allows you to:

Create a profile

Search for matches

Sign up for real-life dating events

See if anyone is interested in you or likes your profile or photos

See if anyone has sent you an email or "Wink"

However, without a paid subscription, you can't do any of the following:

Read or send any emails to anyone

Make secure phone calls to anyone

Chat with anyone using instant messaging

View the profiles of anyone who's interested in you

So, if you're really interested in using Match and making the website work for you, then consider getting a paid subscription.

Match.com subscription plans

Bundle plans

Bundle plans are a little more expensive, but they give you a couple of extra features.

Email Read Notification – This will send you an alert whenever one of your matches reads an email from you for the first time.

First Impressions – This adds extra priority to your profile so that it is more likely to show up as a match for people who are new to Match.com.

Highlighted Profile – This just adds some extra colour to your profile so that it's more noticeable in lists.

As you can see here, your pricing options for bundle plans are:

3 months at $25.99 per month ($78.97 total)

6 months at $21.99 per month ($131.94 total)

12 months at $19.99 per month ($239.88 total)

Basic plans

Basic plans don't offer the extra features that bundle plans do, but they're a bit less expensive.

As you can see here, your pricing options for basic plans are:

3 months at $21.99 per month ($65.97 total)

6 months at $19.99 per month ($119.94 total)

12 months at $18.99 per month ($227.88 total)

If you don't think you're going to be using Match for very long (or much longer, if you've been using it for a while), then there is also the option to get a basic subscription for one month. However, at $39.99, it's the priciest option in terms of money-to-time.

Free Trials

Match offers free trials of their paid memberships so you can try it out and see if it’s worth it for you to pay for. We’ll show you how to get a free one-week trial of their premium membership.

Click here for a link to the page where you can begin signing up for your weeklong free trial. You should see a screen like the one below. If you haven't signed up for an account yet, you can start here by typing in and selecting your information.

We'll assume you already have an account, but don't have a subscription plan yet. In this case, click Sign In beside "Already a Member?" in the top right corner.

Click on the text boxes that appear to type in your user name and password, respectively, and then click Continue.

The next screen will just show you some of the legal stuff surrounding this offer, like how you have to be 18 years or older, separated or never married, and not currently subscribed to Match. (Also, you can't have used a free trial before… obviously). Just click Continue.

You will have to select a subscription plan in order to activate your free trial.

Click the tabs at the top to choose between Basic or Bundle plans, then click on the button beside the one you want, and then click Continue.

If you chose a basic plan, you'll be asked if you want to add any of the additional features that you get with a bundle plan to your subscription.

Click the check boxes beside each feature to add or remove it from your subscription, then click Continue. You can also click No Thanks if you don't want any additional features.

Now here's a screen where you can enter your billing information. We'll assume that you want to pay with a credit card.

[1] First Name on Credit Card — Click here and type in your first name as it appears on your credit card.

[2] Last Name on Credit Card — Click here and type in your last name as it appears on your credit card.

[3] Credit Card Number — Click here and type in your credit card number. Most credit cards have 16 digits (numbers from 0 to 9) in them, but some can have as many as 19, and some can have fewer than 16. So make sure that you aren't putting in too many or too few digits.

[4] Credit Card Security Code — Click here and type in your credit card's security code. It's usually only 3 or 4 digits long, and usually appears on the back of your card. Move your mouse cursor over the little question mark button here to get help on where to look.

[5] Credit Card Type — Click on one of the small pictures here to select the type of credit card that you want to use to make this payment.

[6] Credit Card Expiry Date — Click on the first box here to select from the drop-down menu the month that your credit card will expire. Then click on the second box here to select from the drop-down menu the year that your credit card will expire.

[7] Postal/ZIP Code — Click in this box and type in your postal or ZIP code.

The next page you'll see is just a confirmation of your subscription purchase. Congratulations! You now have a free 7-day trial that lets you communicate with your matches to your heart's content! Just make sure to cancel it before it expires, or else you'll have to pay for the subscription plan that you chose!

Match.com Guarantee

If you purchase a paid subscription and are not able to find a good match within the first 6 months of having a paid membership, Match will give you 6 months of their premium service for free. Check out our article about Match.com’s guarantee to learn more about the details, rules and regulations.

Avoiding Automatic Subscription Renewal Pitfalls

Now, you may have noticed that we put the total cost of each subscription plan (minus taxes, interest, etc.) next to its monthly rate. There is a very good reason for this:

YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR THE FULL DURATION OF ANY SUBSCIRPTION PLAN ON MATCH.COM, EVEN IF YOU CHANGE OR CANCEL IT.

Even if you change or cancel your subscription while in the middle of it, you still have to pay for the remainder of that subscription. You won't be given a refund for the time you don't use, or plan on using under a different subscription type. The reason we mention this has to do with one of the most common complaints that former users have about the website:

MATCH AUTOMATICALLY RENEWS YOUR CURRENT SUBSCRIPTION PLAN AFTER IT EXPIRES, UNLESS YOU CHANGE OR CANCEL IT.

Once your plan is done, the service automatically gives you a new one of the same type, and you have to pay for all of it unless you've changed or cancelled it well in advance. They even say so on the page where you select your subscription:

These two points, taken together, mean that you have to be VERY careful with when you decide to change or cancel your subscription. If you aren't, then you can get stuck having to pay for and use up a whole other instalment of your previous type of subscription before you can start the new type of subscription that you changed it to. Or worse, if you decide to stop using Match, you can get stuck paying for a subscription to a service that you aren't even using anymore!

The moral of the story is to be both vigilant and proactive when it comes to paid subscriptions and billing. Know when your subscription starts and ends, and if you get the urge to change or cancel it, make sure that you do so well in advance of your subscription's expiry date.

Match is a very large and popular website (as we have mentioned), and so it will take time for its customer service team to find all of your necessary information and process any changes. So make sure to give them plenty of notice when you want to change or cancel your subscription in order to avoid getting locked into a deal that you want no part of.

That’s all the information you need to know about how much Match costs!